Kremlin critic Navalny sentenced to nine extra years in prison

Jailed Russian opposition chief is handed extra years in jail on new embezzlement and contempt of court docket fees.

Navalny is seen on a display through a video hyperlink through the verdict in his embezzlement and contempt of court docket trial on the IK-2 jail colony within the city of Pokrov [AFP]

A Russian court docket has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny to 9 years in a maximum-security jail on new embezzlement and contempt of court docket fees.

Tuesday’s verdict has been seen as an try and hold President Vladimir Putin’s most ardent critic in jail for so long as doable.

Navalny was jailed final 12 months for 2 and a half years in a penal colony on outdated fraud fees after surviving an try and poison him with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent, that he blames on the Kremlin.

A choose dominated on Tuesday that Navalny would additionally must pay a high-quality of 1.2 million roubles ($11,500). Navalny can enchantment the ruling.

Navalny had been accused of embezzling cash that he and his basis raised over time and of insulting a choose throughout a earlier trial.

The politician has rejected the allegations as politically motivated. The prosecution had requested for 13 years in a maximum-security jail for the anti-corruption crusader and a 1.2-million-rouble ($11,500) high-quality.

Navalny stands in a cage within the Babuskinsky District Courtroom in Moscow [File: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP]

The trial, which opened a couple of month in the past, unfolded in a makeshift courtroom within the jail colony hours away from Moscow the place Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations.

Navalny’s supporters have criticised the authorities’ resolution to maneuver the proceedings from a court docket in Moscow, saying it has successfully restricted entry to the proceedings for the media and supporters.

Navalny, 45, has appeared at hearings carrying jail garb and made a number of elaborate speeches through the trial, decrying the costs in opposition to him as bogus.

Navalny was arrested in January final 12 months instantly upon his return from Germany, the place he spent 5 months convalescing from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, a declare Russian officers vehemently denied.

Shortly after the arrest, a court docket sentenced him to jail for the parole violations stemming from a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny has insisted was politically motivated.

Crackdown

Following Navalny’s imprisonment, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters.

His closest allies have left Russia after dealing with a number of legal fees, and his Basis for Preventing Corruption and a community of practically 40 regional workplaces had been outlawed as “extremist” – a designation that exposes individuals concerned to prosecution.

Final month, Russian officers added Navalny and a lot of his associates to a state registry of “extremists” and “terrorists”.

A number of legal instances have been launched in opposition to Navalny individually, main his associates to counsel the Kremlin intends to maintain him behind bars for so long as doable.